Tal­ent sto­ries

Paws, Peo­ple, and the Path to Oulu: Lucy’s Adven­ture

Lucy was look­ing for adven­ture when she decid­ed to move to Fin­land for work, and she says she def­i­nite­ly found that here in Oulu. Accom­pa­nied by her beloved dog Tilly, she packed her bags and head­ed north.

Leav­ing Home to Go Home: Tugba’s Sto­ry

In 2021, Tug­ba White­head left Turkey with more than just a suit­case. Her hus­band had already moved to Oulu to study, and soon she fol­lowed, start­ing her own stud­ies in the Learn­ing, Edu­ca­tion and Tech­nol­o­gy (LET) pro­gramme at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu.

Root­ed in the North: A Life Reimag­ined in Oulu

Md. Golam Muh­tasim, orig­i­nal­ly from Bangladesh, moved in 2024 to Fin­land with his wife, who began her Master’s in Bio­med­ical Engi­neer­ing at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu. He feels Oulu gave him space for per­son­al growth and trans­formed his life.

From Hol­i­day Dream to Finnish Real­i­ty – Sophie’s Sto­ry

Have you ever been on a hol­i­day and wished life could be like that all the time? For Sophie Platt she felt like that on her first vis­it to Fin­land, so made the choice to fol­low that feel­ing and move to Oulu. She had been inter­est­ed in pur­su­ing a mas­ter’s degree for some time and decid­ed there was no bet­ter place to do that than in Oulu.

From Lan­guage Class­es to Pol­i­cy Plan­ning: Priyanka’s Role in Migrant Ser­vices in Oulu

Some­times, life takes unex­pect­ed turns, beau­ti­ful, chal­leng­ing, and trans­for­ma­tion­al ones. For Priyan­ka Sood, that turn was love. It was her rela­tion­ship with a man from Oulu that set her on a jour­ney from India to Fin­land.

Sheena Poh – Bring­ing Joy to Oulu, One Unique Trea­sure at a Time

Meet Sheena Poh, an entre­pre­neur from Sin­ga­pore who start­ed her store “Salainen Sekatavarakaup­pa Söpö” to recre­ate the joy and won­ders of her child­hood. Read her sto­ry to know how a warm heart and cre­ativ­i­ty can become a bea­con of hap­pi­ness.

Embrac­ing Fin­land: My Sto­ry of Embrac­ing Change

Hei! My name is Aman­ta and I am from Bangladesh. I moved to Oulu in Octo­ber 2024 with my hus­band who is pur­su­ing a master’s degree in Epi­demi­ol­o­gy and Bio­med­ical Data Sci­ence at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu. I am now work­ing as an Intern at the Inter­na­tion­al House Oulu. This is my sto­ry.

Michal Kovařčík: Hock­ey Play­er’s Jour­ney from the Czech Repub­lic to Oulu

Meet Michal Kovařčík, a 28-year-old Czech ice hock­ey play­er who has been play­ing for Oulun Kär­pät since last autumn. We inter­viewed Michal to hear his thoughts about liv­ing in Oulu and play­ing in Finland’s top pro­fes­sion­al ice hock­ey league.

From First Snow­fall to Finnish Sauna: Khadi­ja’s Adven­tures in Oulu

Khadi­ja Akter, a 29-year-old from Bangladesh, shares her jour­ney of adapt­ing to life in Oulu. Through net­work­ing and par­tic­i­pat­ing in var­i­ous events, Khadi­ja has been build­ing a new life and career in Oulu.

From Ban­ga­lore to Oulu: Varghese’s Jour­ney to a Bal­anced Life

Dri­ven by the desire for a more peace­ful life, supe­ri­or edu­ca­tion­al oppor­tu­ni­ties for their four chil­dren, and the allure of Finland’s renowned hap­pi­ness index, Jose Vargh­ese and his wife embarked on a jour­ney to forge a new life.

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Adri­ana’s Sto­ry of Resilience, Growth, and New Begin­nings

In 2016, Adri­ana Vitori­no lived and worked in Brazil. But her life took an unex­pect­ed turn, and she met a Finnish man in an online game. Let’s find out, what hap­pened after that.

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Car­men’s Life in Oulu: Reflec­tions on a New Begin­ning

Car­men Corvalán’s sto­ry with Fin­land began in 2014 when she vis­it­ed here with her hus­band from San­ti­a­go. Oulu was always one of their stops. How was it to took the big step and move to Oulu per­ma­nent­ly?

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Valia’s Expe­ri­ence: Embrac­ing Life, Growth, and Com­mu­ni­ty in Oulu

Valia came to Oulu in 2012, which was also her first trip to Europe. She came straight to Oulu to vis­it some friends, and now she has been here for nine years. What made her stay here?

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From Iran to Oulu: Mitra’s Insights

Mitra Marofi has Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Remote Sens­ing and Geo­graph­ic Infor­ma­tion Sys­tems from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Tehran, Iran. Before com­ing to Fin­land, she worked as a Spa­tial Data Ana­lyst.

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Love Brought Me to Oulu: A Per­son­al Tale of Life in Fin­land

Man­isha, a doc­tor orig­i­nal­ly from Nepal, got mar­ried in 2021 and moved to Fin­land with her hus­band. It has now been three years since she has been liv­ing here. Becom­ing a moth­er in Oulu has deep­ened her con­nec­tion to the city, she says.

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From Ker­ala to Oulu: Embrac­ing a New Life

My family’s relo­ca­tion to Oulu in June 2023 for my husband’s job was a sur­pris­ing turn of events. Com­ing from Ker­ala in South­ern India, a world away from snow and win­ters, I nev­er imag­ined liv­ing in Fin­land, says Man­ju Krish­na.

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Home Here and Abroad: What Made Dual Cit­i­zen Timo Stay in Fin­land?

Amer­i­can-Finnish Timo Green, who has lived in the Unit­ed States and Italy, was wait­ing for the right moment to move to his sec­ond home coun­try, Fin­land. Timo believes that in Fin­land he has found a home for the rest of his life.

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“Here I have every­thing that makes me hap­py” – Monika’s jour­ney from Poland to Oulu

Moni­ka Cwiek moved to Fin­land in 2020. From Oulu, Moni­ka has found a home where every­thing just fell into a right place. But who Moni­ka is and what are the rea­sons behind enjoy­ing life in Oulu?

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Max’s Expe­ri­ence: Set­tling Down and Thriv­ing in Oulu

Max’s jour­ney from a small town near Lon­don to set­tling down in Oulu is noth­ing short of inspir­ing! From unex­pect­ed twists in his career to find­ing a sense of belong­ing in a new coun­try, Max shares his amaz­ing expe­ri­ence.

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Embrac­ing Change: Fariha’s Jour­ney from Dha­ka to Oulu

Meet Far­i­ha, a master’s stu­dent at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu. From Bangladesh to the serene charm of Oulu, Fin­land, her jour­ney has been noth­ing short of a trans­for­ma­tive one. Dis­cov­er how the warmth of Oulu’s peo­ple, the chal­lenges of learn­ing a new lan­guage, and the beau­ty of Finnish nature have shaped her expe­ri­ence.

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Chas­ing Stars in Oulu: Nav­i­gat­ing the Path to Your Dreams

Meet Rabia, a cer­ti­fied teacher from Pak­istan, cur­rent­ly enrolled at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu, study­ing Learn­ing, Edu­ca­tion and Tech­nol­o­gy (LET) mas­ter’s pro­gram.

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Work­ing hard to pur­sue the dreams: Polina’s sto­ry of appre­ci­a­tion

Polina’s jour­ney in Fin­land did not start in Oulu, but she is hap­py that it led her there. She is now pur­su­ing a degree in Tourism and dreams of doing impact­ful work at the city ser­vices.

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Embrac­ing Oulu: Adri­an’s Tale of Growth, Chal­lenges, and Suc­cess

Adri­an Canales is orig­i­nal­ly from Texas, USA. He has been liv­ing and call­ing Oulu his home for eleven years. Adrian’s plan com­ing to Fin­land was to start a new chap­ter of his life, con­tin­ue his edu­ca­tion and start a career.

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Cold Win­ters, Warm Hearts: Eduardo’s Finnish Adven­ture

Eduar­do Acos­ta, orig­i­nal­ly from Colom­bia, is research­ing cir­cu­lar econ­o­my at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu. He is also an Inter­na­tion­al House Oulu Ambas­sador.

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“How Oulu sup­ports my career and sur­rounds me with nature”

Mov­ing to Oulu has had a sig­nif­i­cant impact on Arjane’s life. She is from the Nether­lands, and moved to Fin­land in 2018. After liv­ing in Jyväskylä for a cou­ple of years, she came to Oulu just over a year ago.

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Meet Kevin Marples: “I been able to prac­tise my Finnish in a friend­ly envi­ron­ment”

Kevin Marples is orig­i­nal­ly from the UK and moved to Fin­land in 2022. Kevin has been work­ing as an intern at Inter­na­tion­al House, Oulu as part of his Inte­gra­tion Train­ing Course.

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From Ghana to Fin­land: Lukumanu’s path to Project Man­age­ment

In a world full of oppor­tu­ni­ties, Luku­manu Iddrisu’s remark­able jour­ney took him from the vibrant streets of Ghana to the unique city of Vaasa, Fin­land.

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From Tex­tile Design in South Korea to Social Ser­vices in Oulu, Fin­land

Life has a way of guid­ing us on unex­pect­ed paths, lead­ing to incred­i­ble trans­for­ma­tions. Meet Bora Kim, a kind indi­vid­ual who had a unique jour­ney from South Korea to Oulu, Fin­land.

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“There is some­thing for every­one in Oulu”

She­fat Islam is orig­i­nal­ly from Bahrain. Cur­rent­ly, she is a com­mu­ni­ca­tions intern and stud­ies MSc. in Mar­ket­ing at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu.

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“Don’t say ‘No’ when oppor­tu­ni­ties come knock­ing”

Vanes­sa Phekani came to Oulu from Malawi. She hold a bachelor’s degree in pub­lic admin­is­tra­tion and soci­ol­o­gy, and a master’s degree in edu­ca­tion and glob­al­i­sa­tion from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu.

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“What I love about the peo­ple here is that they are great lis­ten­ers”

Kamal Singh came to Oulu in 2010 for his stud­ies from India. At the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu, he stud­ied to be a wire­less com­mu­ni­ca­tion engi­neer. Cur­rent­ly, Kamal is work­ing as a Net­work coor­di­na­tor.

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”Oulu is a help­ful place for inter­na­tion­al stu­dents, and peo­ple are nice”

Kiran Pan­dit came to Fin­land from Nepal and com­plet­ed a Bachelor’s Degree in Inter­na­tion­al Busi­ness at Oulu Uni­ver­si­ty of Applied Sci­ences (OAMK). He is a chair­per­son of the board of Pin­tames­tar­it.

“If you want to work in Oulu, believe in your­self and push hard”

Vik­tors Sobolevs came to Oulu from Latvia, and stud­ied at Oulu Uni­ver­si­ty of Applied Sci­ences (Oamk). Now, he works as a busi­ness prod­uct man­ag­er at Polar.

The incred­i­ble jour­ney of Chiara Boset­ti

Oulu Tal­ent Hub Ambas­sador Chiara Boset­ti, orig­i­nal­ly from Italy, came to Oulu one year ago. “I had great expec­ta­tions, and I cer­tain­ly got what I was look­ing for”, she says.

“North­ern Lights – the best thing to expe­ri­ence in Oulu”

Sharmin Farah came to Oulu from Bangladesh. Her life has changed sig­nif­i­cant­ly dur­ing the five years she have lived in Fin­land. Though it has been a roller­coast­er ride, I am enjoy­ing this jour­ney, Sharmin says.

“I feel pos­i­tive about my pos­si­bil­i­ties here”

Niy­ati Kandikan­ti is an ambas­sador for Oulu Tal­ent Hub, and she enjoys net­work­ing. – There are many oppor­tu­ni­ties in Oulu to inter­act with oth­er inter­na­tion­al stu­dents and vis­it new places.

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“I think every­body can find friends here”

Maja Tern­ing is from Trom­sø in North­ern Nor­way. She has been liv­ing here in Oulu for 16 years now, and work­ing with Business­Oulu for about eight years.

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